Defence Economics & Industry

The India-Israel Strategic Partnership

Publisher: Pentagon Press
2022

India and Israel marked three decades of the establishment of full diplomatic ties in January 2022. In the aftermath of the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017, India-Israel relations have acquired a new momentum and strategic depth.

Defence and security cooperation have been the mainstays of the partnership. The study notes that India is taking a series of measures to enhance domestic procurement and defence indigenization. Going forward, strategic partners like Israel will be expected to continue to work more closely with the domestic defence industry to fulfil the critical requirements of India’s armed forces.

On reginal security issues like the Iranian nuclear contentions, India has adopted positions largely in opposition to the preferred Israeli policy preferences. India has, however, consistently held that it is opposed to the possibility of a nuclear Iran, given the negative repercussions for regional security and stability, as well as due to the Iran-Pakistan proliferation linkages.

India’s Palestine policy, meanwhile, will continue to be guided by its core principles on the issue, even as the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel, looks difficult to materialize in the near to mid-terms. This is even as the schisms within the Palestinian national movement look set to expand in the post-Mahmoud Abbas era.

The book brings to attention the dynamic path India-Israel relations have traversed in the past three decades, encompassing areas of defence and security and high-technology cooperation. New vistas of engagement are being pursued by both countries, bilaterally as well as with other countries. The first I2U2 Summit meeting held between the leaders of India, Israel, the UAE and the US in July 2022 emphasized the geo-economic focus of the unique mini-lateral group. An India-Israel enhanced strategic partnership is a win-win proposition, bilaterally and across regions.

ISBN: 978-93-90095-70-4 ,
Price: ₹ 995
E-copy available

The India-Israel Defence and Security Partnership At 30

Defence and security cooperation have been the mainstays of the India-Israel strategic engagement. The Monograph places in perspective these aspects of the relationship, three decades into the establishment of full diplomatic ties. The study notes that India is taking a series of measures to enhance domestic procurement and defence indigenization.

Best Practices in Financial Management: Accrual Accounting for Defence

Changes in public financial management across the globe have necessitated India to revisit its traditional methods of managing and depicting its public finances. One of the major changes envisaged is a quest to migrate gradually to accrual accounting from the traditional cash-based accounting.

Publisher: KW Publishers
2019

In recent years, transfer of defence technology to India, as an alternate route to indigenous development, has been frequently brought up with widely varying views from the Indian defence technology fraternity. Some lament its failure to help India achieve self-reliance, while others suggest it can enable India to leapfrog ahead. While it has been paradoxically found to be more expensive than outright purchase of defence systems, there are indications that countries such as Israel, South Korea and China have gained immensely from it. While there has been a flood of ToT proposals from foreign OEMs after the launch of the Make in India initiative, there have been few proposals which have materialised and a miniscule number successfully implemented. Acknowledging the need to unravel these mysteries, this book attempts to throw light on the entire range of connected aspects from a brief historical perspective to an understanding of its fundamentals and nuances, to how ToT should be aligned with national goals and there on to its implementation issues. Initially addressing the conventional mode and its complexities, it expands to touch upon the others, then the unconventional ones, the facilitators such as offsets and the transaction in its widest sense. Thus enveloping the complete spectrum, it brings its insights together to converge on a possibly successful arrangement for India. Written in an explorative, questioning style, this book will intrigue interested readers and propel the Indian defence technology community to dwell on its findings and suggestions for the formulation of a cogent way forward.

ISBN: 978-93-89137-17-0,
Price: ₹.980/-
E-copy available

Publisher: Pentagon Press

This book thoroughly probes the Indian Defence industry and the policies pertaining to it. Based on hard core evidence, it identifies the key shortcomings of this vital sector and provides a detailed roadmap for the Modi government’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme to succeed in defence production sector. Though written with a clear focus on influencing policy making, the book is presented in an accessible format to be easily understood by the wider strategic community.

ISBN 978-81-8274-905-4,
Price: ₹. 995
E-copy available

Publisher: Pentagon Press

The book attempts to study the defence industrialisation process that has been adopted by the militarily developed and developing nations to analyse, orient and adapt their best practices to the Indian defence industry and technological base. The analysis reveals that there is a requirement to re-assess, re-align & re-model the Indian defence industry apparatus in line with the vision of accelerating indigenisation, self-sufficiency and strategic capability, as pertaining to military systems.

ISBN 978-81-8274-892-7,
Price: ₹. 1295
E-copy available

Defence Offsets: International Best Practices and Lessons for India

The Monograph provides a comprehensive roadmap for reforming India’s defence offset policy which despite having gone through several rounds of revisions in past decade or so, still lacks effectiveness. The roadmap is based on extensive study of offset practices followed by six countries: Canada, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Turkey and the UAE.

United States Reforms to Its Higher Defence Organisation: Lessons for India

Democracies of the world have many similarities, notwithstanding the differences in the system of governance and the governmental structure. The decision making by the Higher Defence Organisation (HDO) and the government of the United States and India face similar challenges regardless of the threat perception and the role, size and the employment of the military.

Synergising Quality Assurance for Speedy Defence Procurement and Ensuring Quality

The Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) is the organisation that is responsible for ensuring the quality of a wide range of military hardware at the time of their procurement. This is a very old organisation and has evolved over a period of time to meet the aspirations of its customers. However, since the introduction of Defence Procurement Procedure it has invited lot of criticism from its users due to the delays caused in procurements and attributable to Quality Assurance (QA), as also the introduction of sub-standard equipment in service.

Publisher: Pentagon Press
2014

India's current defence imperatives transcend the ideeological 'defence vs. butter' debate. Even while there may be no profound existential concerns, the geo-political reality of a deeply troubled neighbourhood, long legacy of border disputes with neighbours in the north and west and a widening spectrum of potential warfare from conventional and strategic to the asymmetric can be ignored at our own peril.

ISBN 978-81-8274-818-7,
Price: ₹. 1095/-
E-copy available

Indian Defence Industry: Issues of Self-Reliance

The monograph makes an attempt to estimate India’s defence self-reliance index, which has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. It also surveys the key recommendations of various high level committees set up by the Indian government post the Kargil conflict. The monograph concludes with key policy measures to revitalize India’s moribund defence industry.

Publisher: Pentagon Press
2013

This book is a compendium of papers presented and circulated in the International Seminar on Defence acquisition organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses on July 12-14, 2011. Written by the practitioners, industry leaders and subject experts, the book brings out the best international practices in defence acquisition.

ISBN ISBN 978-81-8274-711-1,
Price: ₹. 1295/-
E-copy available

India’s Defence Spending: Assessing Future Needs

Publisher: IDSA and Knowledge World

ISBN: 81-86019-25-2

Rs. 850

India’s Defence Expenditure: A Trend Analysis

This article examines India’s defence expenditure over the past ten years. In so doing, it provides a public finance perspective to explain the recurring resource crunch being faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The article reasons that a substantial augmentation of resources for the MoD in the past has faced stiff barriers due to lack of tax buoyancy and also the political, economic and other exigencies that have led to greater public spending outside the traditional areas of expenses, including defence.

Laxman Kumar Behera , Pabitra Mohan Nayak
September 2021
Strategic Analysis

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Defence Indigenization: The Case of Bullet-Resistant Jackets

Post-COVID, the renewed emphasis on indigenisation in India calls for a fresh, in-depth examination of the entire range of issues and policies pertaining to the development of a capable domestic base for the defence industry and technology.

India–US Defence Cooperation: Assessing Strategic Imperatives

Over the last decade or so, especially during much of Barack Obama’s presidential tenure, the defence sector has become the focus area of cooperation between India and the US. India’s engagement with the US in the area of defence is riding on a new-found realism that drives both countries’ strategic aspirations.

Defence Offsets: A System-Level View

How effective are offsets as a means to boost a domestic defence industry? This article takes a novel approach to answering this question; examining global data on levels of defence sales over three decades as a measure of successful defence industrialisation (i.e., using the market as an indicator of success). The quantitative data points to a mixed picture as despite the ubiquity of defence offsets, they are no guarantees of success in defence industrialisation.

A Perspective on Defence Planning in India

The available literature on defence planning in India does not make for very encouraging reading. A few things stand out. Firstly, there is an acute dearth, if not almost complete absence, of authentic official accounts and analysis of what has gone on in the name of defence planning over the last six decades. Secondly, narratives based either on personal recollection or on opinions and views of those who have directly or indirectly been associated with defence planning at different points of time have filled this void. Others have chipped in too.

India’s Defence Offset Policy

Although India has established a formal mechanism for implementation of the defence offset policy, the structure and procedures lack the thrust to fulfil the objective of energizing the Indian defence industry. Besides, the policy is not supported by the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and licensing policies. While evidence suggests that domestic industry can absorb offsets, what India needs is an effective body to handle offsets, liberal FDI and licensing policies, and a better banking provision.

Guest Editor’s Note

Capacity-Building in Defense Science and Technology: A Perspective from the DRDO

Outsourcing of Defence Logistics in the Indian Armed Forces

There is today an increasing acceptance of the concept of defence outsourcing of non-core logistic functions. Outsourcing frees commanders to focus on their primary task and saves resources. The paper attempts a holistic treatment of the subject from conceptual concerns to related practical issues. A brief scan of defence outsourcing the world over leads us to examine benefits that accrue and the precautions that should be taken. The paper goes on to analyse types of functions that can be safely outsourced and suggests a methodology for the entire process.

Challenges in Defence Planning

Defence planning is essentially a subset of overall national level planning in the political, economic and social spheres and has to be evolved in the context of global and proximate factors affecting the nation. . It has also to take into account the philosophy and ethos animating the national psyche; in other words the historical and cultural forces which have shaped the collective memory and outlook of the people over the centuries.

Defence Budget: Towards an Outcome and Programme Based System

The contents of the general, as well as, the defence budget of the Government of India have normally been widely discussed and debated. However, the focus mostly has been on the magnitude of the budget rather than the system of budgeting. Yet it is the system that needs to be the focus of discussions and requires reforms. Over a period of time, the budget documents had become quite static in terms of structure, content and communication of results.

Weapons Procurement: Qualitative Requirements and Transparency in Evaluation

Procurement of new weaponry and equipment for the armed forces is a long, complex and arduous process. Funds involved are enormous and the quality of equipment selected has a profound influence on national defence potential. Therefore, most countries have evolved elaborate procedures aimed at procuring the most appropriate equipment at affordable prices.

Reforming Financial Management in Defence

The Government of India and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have initiated several reforms in the areas of budget and accounting. The reforms are ongoing and take into account the changes in other similar systems abroad and international best practices. The focus all over the world is to operate in a continuum of long-term plans, medium-term plans, annual plans, on the one hand, and allocations, targets and outputs on the other so that stability in budgetary allocations, accountability of the budgetholders and transparency in the processes can be ensured.

Defence Equipment Acquisition: An Assessment

The primary objective of inventory management for the defence forces is to sustain and update their capabilities to perform the tasks given to them. The study of defence equipment purchase is normally confined to arms and equipment used for countering external aggression, although specialised equipment for surveillance and weaponry used in close combat situations especially in urban areas or those which result in little collateral damage are also utilised by the armed forces in anti-terrorist or counterinsurgency operations.

India-Russia Defence Cooperation

Co-operation in the field of defence constitutes one of the most important features of Indo-Russian bilateral ties. However, the relationship is undergoing significant changes in the new context of market reforms and globalisation, as well diversification of acquisitions by India. Owing to the past legacy and ongoing projects, Russia will remain, at least for the foreseeable future, a major defence partner of India.

Defence Economics: Core Issues

Defence can seldom ignore the standard economic problem—the need to make critical often hard resource choices. Yet the output of defence studies focuses almost entirely on professional and strategic issues, and little on finance or economics. There is a presumption in most countries that the needs of defence must be met, and often they are met without

Defence Budgeting System: Need for Change

In India, the defence budgeting system is incremental and input-based. Yearly allocations of funds are made without reference to the defence plans. In effect, the budget does not get linked to any established goals or outputs. Resource planning beyond a one-year period is not carried out. Some have even called it an archaic system. The five-year defence plans have lost their utility for resource planning. This article brings out the shortcomings in the present budgeting system and recommends some options for a goal-oriented budgeting system.

Arms and Politics

Before and during World War II, India was one of the many territorial commands of the British imperial defence system. When India became independent, the country was totally reliant on Britain for its armaments for the three services. There was some left over equipment of the US armed forces from the World War II period – Dakota aircraft, some Sherman tanks and transport vehicles.

Trends in European Defence Industries in the 1990s: An Assessment

Significant changes have been witnessed in major centres of military production in recent times. Since the end of the Cold War, indicators of military production – expenditure, R&D expenditure, demand and supply of weaponry, and others – have shown fluctuations. Military efforts of States decelerated for nearly a decade, only to rise again since the late 1990s.

The Acquisition of Rafale Aircraft: Facts and Concerns That Ought To Be In the Public Domain

The acrimonious debate in the public space on the acquisition of Rafale aircraft has been primarily focused on a few issues. The debate does not inform the public about the long, arduous and complex nature of the programme and the joint effort invested in it. The uniqueness of this programme is also not in the public domain. It does not specifically inform the lay person as to the rationale for restricting the numbers to two squadrons, and carries on oblivious of the collateral effect it may have on future acquisition programmes.

Defence Planning and Budget Dilemma

The government decided to do away with the five year planning process in 2014. Therefore, there is no 13th plan. Despite this, MoD has gone ahead and formulated the 13th five year plan and submitted it to MoF for information only. Thus, the dilemma of defence planning and budget continues.

Defence Research and Development: International Approaches for Analysing the Indian Programme

The Occasional Paper attempts to analyse the performance of India's defence research and development machinery and especially that of the DRDO. The Paper concludes by bringing out the lessons and concurrently suggesting the way ahead for India.

Defence Innovations in India: The Fault Lines

The Occasional Paper examines India's defence innovation performance, especially of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the defence industry. The paper argues that the innovation performance of these two players is constrained by lack of a higher organisational structure which could provide direction and required thrust to the indigenous R&D.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan: Unravelling Pakistan’s Enduring Threat

The 4 November 2023 attack on the Pakistan Air Force base by an affiliate of the TTP highlights the threat posed by the group to the Pakistani state.

Rajneesh Singh
November 16, 2023
Issue Brief

Technology Development Fund: Opportunities and Challenges

The Technology Development Fund (TDF) is an important Grant-in-Aid Scheme of DRDO under Technology Management Cluster, for the purpose of inculcating defence R&D culture in private sector.

Arvind Khare
November 03, 2023
Issue Brief

Semiconductor War: Assessing the Strategies and Impact of US Led Technology Decoupling

The United States and its allies have taken significant steps in recent years to decouple from China in the field of advanced chip manufacturing.

Rajneesh Singh
October 26, 2023
Issue Brief

The Fourth Positive Indigenisation List: A Step Forward for India

The Positive Indigenisation List is a significant step towards achieving the government’s objective of self-reliance in defence production.

Defence Public Sector Units and Exports

While defence public sector units have been making efforts to increase their marketing footprint, they will have to succeed in a highly competitive export market.

Strengthening Resilience: Atmanirbhar Bharat and Tackling Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

The complexity and interconnection of global supply chains has heightened the realisation of the need for supply chain resilience and self-reliance in production.

Rajneesh Singh
August 17, 2023
IDSA Comments

Enriching the Defence Contours of India-Maldives Relations

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh’s visit to Maldives has strengthened the countries’ long-standing ties and expanded defence cooperation.

The Wagner Group: A Tool of Hybrid Warfare

The Wagner Group has become an indispensable tool of hybrid warfare for the Russian state

BrahMos: 25 Years of the Joint Venture

India needs to more actively develop marketing and promotion networks to promote defence sales.

Defence Budget 2023–24: Trend Analysis

In the Union Budget 2023–24, the estimated allocations for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are Rs 5,93,537.64 crores, an increase of 13 per cent over BE 2022–23 (Rs 5,25,166.15 crores).

The Race for the Indian Naval Fighter Contract

Dassault and Boeing have been aggressively pitching their excellent products to fulfil India’s naval fighter aircraft requirements.

Defence Procurement: Negative Lists with Positive Implications

The defence indigenisation lists are expected to promote domestic arms manufacturing and reduce the burden of arms imports.

Mukesh Kumar
September 30, 2022
IDSA Comments

Applicability of CVC Guidelines to Defence Procurement

Given that the Department of Expenditure will henceforth be the nodal department for issuing procurement related instructions in future, the Ministry of Defence must institute a system to promptly incorporate them in the MoD procurement manuals.

Amit Cowshish
August 29, 2022
IDSA Comments

Issues in Co-Development and Co-Production of Defence Equipment

The success of the co-development-cum-production push in Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 would depend on the commercial viability of the co-developed product, apart from overcoming a host of conceptual and procedural challenges.

Amit Cowshish
August 17, 2022
IDSA Comments

Budgetary Reforms: The Forgotten Agenda

Micro and macro-level budgetary reforms are required to ensure optimum utilisation of the allocated resources for executing financially viable plans.

Amit Cowshish
August 02, 2022
IDSA Comments

US and EU Sanctions on Russian Defence Industry

US and EU sanctions against key Russian arms producing firms, design bureaus and export organisations have had significant implications for Russian arms importing nations.